


In Moments of Pain, We Seek Revenge

by aceofwhump



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Choking, Gen, Handcuffed, Hanging, Hospitalization, Hospitals, Hurt Danny "Danno" Williams, Injured Danny "Danno" Williams, Rescue, Revenge, Whump, Worried Steve McGarrett, tied up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-22 05:08:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20868683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aceofwhump/pseuds/aceofwhump
Summary: Danny is kidnapped in some sort of revenge plot against Steve. He wakes up in pain, chained to a pole, with a noose around his neck.Excerpt: "Looking up, Danny saw a very ominous looking rope hanging from the ceiling above him. That was when he noticed the thick leather strap around his neck. After close examination it appeared the rope was tied to the collar around his neck at one end and traveled up above his head until he couldn’t see it anymore. Where the rope ended he didn’t know. At present, it was loose enough that there was plenty of slack and he could move around easily. The leather collar wasn’t so tight that he couldn’t breathe but the presence of it worried him. It clearly had a purpose and Danny didn’t like any of the options that lay before him."





	In Moments of Pain, We Seek Revenge

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prompt full for my Bad Things Happen Bingo card over on my tumblr aceofwhump.tumblr.com. For @captivity-whump on tumblr. 
> 
> it got too long to put on a tumblr post so I'm posting it here. 
> 
> (how the fuck do people title.)

_Parking lot off of Ala Moana Boulevard _ **  
**

Detective Danny Williams pulled his car into the parking lot of an old, clearly abandoned, restaurant and turned off the engine. Leaning back in his seat he looked around the area trying to get a feel of the situation. The sun was shining brightly, the sky was a beautiful blue, not a cloud in the sky, birds were chirping in the distance and yet this parking lot felt ominous. Perhaps it was the cop in him but Danny didn’t like it. He remained tense and on guard as he looked around the empty lot for his expected appointment.

Why was he sitting in his car, alone, in an empty parking lot at 2:30 in the afternoon? Earlier in the day, HPD dispatch had received a call from a man claiming he had information on one of the cases that Five-0 was currently working on. The man told them that he would only give that information to Detective Williams and it had to be right now. Danny thought it was odd and definitely suspicious but they were getting nowhere with this case and well, leave no stone unturned right? 

Normally he and Steve would go together to check out leads but Steve had been trapped in a meeting with the governor at the time and Chin and Kono had gone out chasing a different lead. The caller insisted on meeting now and while it was a thin lead at best, it was best to check it out just in case. Better to get nothing out of it than to skip it and miss something important. So before he left the office he called Steve to update him hoping he’d be out of his meeting soon and could join him. He got his voicemail so Danny let him know what was going on and where the meet was and then he headed out to meet with the caller. Alone.

Danny sat in his car, waiting. It was about 20 minutes after the agreed meeting time now and still no one arrived. Not the caller, not Steve, no one. Deciding to call it a bust he dialed Steve’s number to let him know. Just like his earlier call, it went straight to voicemail. 

Frustrated, Danny left him another message, “Steve, hey it’s me again. I’m at the meet. Been about 20 minutes and no sign of our Good Samaritan. I don’t think this guys showing up. I’m gonna take a quick look around here but I think this is a bust. Be back at the office soon.” 

Danny hung up the phone and decided at the last minute to give Chin and Kono a try. He probably should have called them before he left the office but he didn’t think about it. Quickly dialing Chin’s number he waited as it rang and rang and rang and then went to voicemail. Swearing to himself Danny left yet another voicemail and hung up. Trying Kono resulted in the same thing. Another voicemail message. Why doesn’t anyone answer their phone!

Danny swore loudly, grabbed his gun out of the glove box and exited his car. As he rounded the building, something struck him in his bad knee and he went down in a haze of pain. He grabbed his knee and grimaced, clenching his jaw to prevent a scream from ripping out of him. Pain exploded across his head. He was unconscious before his body hit the floor.

When Danny woke up he was lying on his side, his face in the dirt, with his arms pulled awkwardly behind his back. His head throbbed to the beat of his heart and he groaned in pain. Danny squirmed around a bit trying to get off the dirty ground but his wrists were bound and handcuffed to something behind him, some kind of pole or pipe. Trying to sit up resulted in his knee screaming out in pain and he fell to the ground again, curling up around himself, his hands automatically trying to grasp at the source of pain but the handcuffs prevented him from doing so. Danny gritted his teeth to stop himself from crying out and tried to ride out the pain.

Slowly the pain edged away and he managed to sit up, scooting back to lean against the wall. Danny took a deep breath and looked around at his surroundings. It was dark. He could barely see two feet in front of him and it was hot. Like someone had locked him inside of an oven. He could tell that wherever he was, the room was large. Very large. Almost like a warehouse. 

_Okay Williams, stay calm. Think. Steve knows where you went and when you don’t show up after a while he’s gonna be concerned. Right? Right. The problem is you have no idea how long it’s been already and no idea where you are._

Feeling around with his hands, he felt the bite of thin metal cuffs around his wrists connected to a metal pole on the wall. It gave him some space to maneuver but not a lot to anything with. He couldn’t move his arms, the strain of having them pulled back already making his muscles ache. Danny pulled and jerked in a vain attempt at breaking free until his wrists were chafed and bleeding but neither the cuffs nor the pole gave way. 

Looking up, Danny saw a very ominous looking rope hanging from the ceiling above him. That was when he noticed the thick leather strap around his neck. After close examination it appeared the rope was tied to the collar around his neck at one end and traveled up above his head until he couldn’t see it anymore. Where the rope ended he didn’t know. At present, it was loose enough that there was plenty of slack and he could move around easily. The leather collar wasn’t so tight that he couldn’t breathe but the presence of it worried him. It clearly had a purpose and Danny didn’t like any of the options that lay before him.

All of a sudden a door flew open and sunlight filtered in, it’s harsh brightness momentarily blinding Danny and he winced as it exacerbated his headache. The sound of shoes clicking on the floor alerted Danny to the fact that someone was coming towards him. He blinked rapidly to adjust his eyes to the change in light as a man knelt in front of him.

“Finally awake are we?” the man said with a smirk. He turned slightly behind him, never looking away from Danny. He spoke to his goons behind him, never taking his eyes off Danny, smirk never falling, and stood up, “Get him up.”

Several pairs of hands came out of nowhere and grabbed Danny by his biceps. He was manhandled to his feet, the cuffs around his wrists clanking against the pole as he was dragged upwards. The hands around his arms held on tightly as he swayed dangerously as the sudden change of altitude made him dizzy. He closed his eyes tightly against the nausea that rolled through him and breathed in slowly trying to put the world right again. When he felt his equilibrium return he opened his eyes and the hands released him.

“Detective Williams. Lovely to finally meet you in person.” This guys voice was irritatingly chipper for a kidnapper and it made Danny want to punch him.

“We know each other?”

“Let’s just say I’m an old friend of your partner’s.”

“An old friend of-okay so what do you want huh? What do want with me?”

“I’m repaying McGarrett for something he did to me. And you’re gonna help me with that.” Douchebag, as Danny had decided to call him in his head (not the most creative name sure but hey his head hurts, give him a break), approached him and ran his hand slowly along the strap around his neck. “See this? This was specifically designed with you in mind. Seems harmless enough right now, yes?”

Douchebag dropped his hand from Danny’s neck and turned to one of his goons. ”If you’d please,” he said, turning his back to Danny and gesturing towards something in the darkness.

Goon #1 walked over to a hand crank and started cranking. The rope slowly lost it’s slack until it began to tighten the leather collar around his neck. When the goon finished cranking, the rope had been pulled tight enough to keep Danny on his toes. Literally. As the rope tightened, so did the collar, threatening to cut off his air supply. In his haste to keep breathing Danny was forced to stand on his tiptoes to prevent the collar from tightening any further. His neck craned at an odd angle and he lifted his chin up to try and gain more slack. The collar was tight enough as it was and Danny knew if he sagged, tried to sit, or even tried to relax his body the rope would tighten the collar around his neck and cut off his air supply. Every muscle in his body tensed, desperate to keep himself standing at this position, to keep himself still.

“All you need to do is keep standing and you’ll be just fine but give in even a little bit and …”

Suddenly, Douchebag kicked him hard in his already badly bruised knee making his legs buckle under the pain. Danny went down with a shout of pain that was quickly cut off as the rope tightened the collar around his neck and literally took his breath away. He was hanging mid air, the rope having stopped his descent to the ground. Choking, unable to draw in a breath as the leather collar cut off his air supply, Danny scrambled to get his feet back under him, ignoring the pain in his knee in favor of breathing. His arms clanged uselessly against the pole as he tried to pick himself up. He managed to get his feet under him again and only when he was on his tiptoes again did he feel the collar around his throat loosen enough to allow oxygen to move through his airway again. He coughed and wheezed trying to breathe normally again, stretching his neck up to get as much as through it as he could. 

Douchebag leaned forward and whispered in his ear ominously, “Let’s see how long you can stand on your feet. Better yet, let’s see how long you can stay awake.”

Danny was still trying to catch his breath as the man laughed and walked away, slamming the door behind him and leaving him alone in the darkness. 

* * *

_Five-0 Headquarters, Iolani Palace_

Steve stormed into the Five-0 headquarters, slamming the doors shut behind him. Not only had his meeting with the Governor gone on forever but she spent most of the time berating him and his team over ridiculous things. He had left what felt like the longest meeting of his life feeling angrier than he had in a long time.

“Hey, Steve how’d your meeting go?” Chin, standing at the computer table, asked as Steve made his way into the bullpen.

“Don’t get me started," he growled. "Where does she get the gall to question how we get the job done after she explicitly told us to take care of it by any means necessary? You know what? I don’t even want to talk about it. How are things here? Any movement on the Coulter case?”

Chin shook his head, “No. We’re still dead on the water on that. Kono and I checked out a lead but it was a bust.”

Steve grunted in response as he tried to think about their next move. This case had been a thorn in his side for the past three days and they were no further on it than when they started. Every lead they discovered came out dry and the lack of evidence had them running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

“How about you?” Chin said. “Danny left a message saying you were gonna meet with someone who might have a lead on the case. How’d that pan out?”

“Yeah where is he by the way?” Kono's jumped in as she entered the bullpen looking past Steve expecting to see his partner behind him.

Steve looked at them both confused, “What are you talking about? What lead?”

Chin shrugged, “I don’t know, brah. All the message said was that a guy might have information and that he was gonna check it out. Told me he called you and was on his way to the meet.”

“When was this?” Steve asked.

“Maybe two, three hours ago? You didn’t know about this?”

“I just got out of my meeting with the Governor.” Steve was already pulling out his phone as he spoke. Seeing the notification indicating that there were two unheard messages for him, he listened to the first of Danny’s messages, his face falling as the message told him it was saved over two hours ago. “Neither of you have heard from him since?”

Kono frowned, clearly worried now too. “No. You think he ran into some kind of trouble?”

Steve’s phone rolled into the next message. He listened to Danny’s voice telling him that he thought the meeting was a bust and that he’d be back in the office soon. That was over an hour ago.

“Shit,” Steve swore quickly and started dialing Danny’s number. After three rings he heard the tell tale click indicating that Danny answered but no one spoke. “Danny, where the hell are you? You okay?”

No response. “Danny? You there?”

_“Hello again Commander McGarrett. Been a long time.”_

“Who the hell is this. Where’s Danny?”

_“Detective Williams is a bit tied up at the moment. He can’t come to the phone right now but why don’t we chat instead.”_

“Who the hell is this?” Steve quickly gestured for Kono to start a trace and she nodded, typing furiously on the smart table.

_“I’m crushed, McGarrett. You don’t recognize my voice? Shame. And we’ve been through so much together. I guess it has been quite some time though.”_

“Yeah? Why don’t tell me your name then. Jog my memory.”

_“Ahh but that wouldn’t be any fun now would it?"_

“What have you done with Danny?” Steve asked, his voice strained and angry.

_“He’s fine. For now. Can’t be sure of how long that will last though and there’s nothing you can do about that. You’ll never find him, Commander, I can assure you of that. He’s going to die, his body will rot and wither away, and you will never find him. And you can tell your cop buddies that the trace they’re trying right now isn’t going to do any good.”_

"What do you want?"

_"For you to know that your partner died because of you."_

“You son of a bitch! I don’t know who you are you but I swear to god I’m going to find you. You hear me? I will find you.”

The voice on the other end of the phone laughed at him like his threat meant nothing to him. _“You can certainly try Commander but your precious partner is going to die before you ever come close. Goodbye Commander, it’s been fun.” _the man hung up the phone and Steve listened, stunned and in shock, to the dial tone for a second before turning to Kono.

“Kono tell me you got him.”

She looked at him forlornly, “I’m sorry boss. Whoever that was is good. They’re hiding behind a dozen proxies and pinging the signal all over the place. I got nothing.”

“Dammit!” Steve swore loudly, banging his phone on the table in frustration. His heart was pounding, blood rushing to his head. He leaned forward over the table to try and calm down. He closed his eyes, took several deep breaths, and ran his hand through his hair several times before straightening out again. His hands were shaking slightly. 

Danny was in danger. He could be killed. All because of some revenge plot against him. The thought made him nauseous.

Crossing his arms over his chest in a vain attempt at hiding the tremors in his hands, Steve slipped into to the calm, commanding officer he knew so well. “Okay, first things first, let’s figure out what lead Danny was following. Kono contact HPD dispatch and learn everything you can about that phone call Danny was responding to. Chin and I will go to the location Danny left on his voicemail. He most likely got taken there and we might find something out there.”

_Hang in there, Danno. I’m coming for you._

* * *

_Location unknown_

Danny had lost track of how many hours went by after Douchebag left him alone, hanging from a rope in the dark. After he had calmed down from his near suffocation, Danny tried to come up with a way out of his predicament. When he came up with absolutely nothing viable he waited. 

He waited for whoever had locked him in here to return and finish him off. 

He waited for Steve to come bursting through to door like Rambo and save his ass. 

He waited for his body to give out and for him to suffocate to death.

He waited and waited and waited.

None of that happened of course. Not yet anyway. And now, several hours later, he was just bored and incredibly uncomfortable. He tried to relax his too tense muscles but he only ended up tensing up again when fear crept up inside of him, telling him if he let himself relax too much he could slip up and the rope would take him. 

After several hours of being tightly wound his body ached. The pain in his head hadn’t lessened and it now throbbed in time with his bum knee which was swollen and bruised from the abuse it had taken over the course of the day. Blood dripped from the gash on his forehead, courtesy of one of the goons who had knocked him out, and coated the side of his face. It was bleeding far too much and that worried Danny. He felt a bead of sweat and blood roll down the side of his face and drip onto the ground.

His head hurt so much. He was dizzy. Every now and then the room spun and he had to close his eyes or he'd either pass out or throw up. Neither of which he wanted to do in his current situation. He probably had a concussion he thought as another wave of nausea rolled through him and he nearly vomited right then and there. Danny closed his eyes tightly and breathed through it, praying he wouldn’t puke. In his current position that would not turn out well. Eventually the moment passed and he sighed in relief. 

Scratch that, he definitely had a concussion. 

His knee was no better. After that guy had kicked him, it screamed in pain anytime he put too much weight on it. Danny was left leaning harder on one side of his body which did nothing to help his straining, aching muscles.

And god he was thirsty. He needed water soon. The suffocating heat was only making his situation even worse. At least he was still sweating. When he stopped sweating he would really worry about dehydration. Not that he could do anything about it when it does happen. Still, he’d kill for a glass of water at the moment. Funny. He lived on a damn island, constantly surrounded by water and there was a real possibility he’d die of thirst. He really hated irony.

Time passed in a haze of pain and disorientation. The heat, the thirst, the pain, his concussion, all of it did nothing to help Danny’s increasingly scattered thoughts. After this long, alone with your thoughts, your mind goes to some weird places. 

Danny found himself moving from analyzing his kidnappers, trying to figure out who they are and what they wanted, to trying and failing to find a way out. Boredom led him to run through the Mets lineup for 86 and 92 and, after he went through those two several times, any other year he could think of. 

He made lists of anything he could think of just to pass the time. How many times he’d been shot in the last year, how many ways Jersey was better than Hawaii, how many Jersey pizza places he could name, how many times Steve had almost gotten him killed, etc. 

He thought about Grace a lot too. What she was doing, if she was okay, what would happen to her if he died here and how he might never see her again.

The longer he spent in this room, the harder it became to keep himself standing. He was tired, so tired, and the pain his whole body was in just continued to climb. His head was pounding and every single muscle in his body screamed at him. All he wanted to do was sit down. 

Danny figured at least a day had gone by judging by change in light which came through the small window. Twice now he had fallen asleep only to have the lack of oxygen jerk him back wake. Both times he scrambled to right himself and both times he just barely made it before he passed out from the lack of oxygen. 

He couldn’t last much longer like this. He supposed that’s what those guys were hoping for. That Danny would eventually fall asleep or that his body would just give in and collapse. 

Danny’s legs were trembling now, every muscle in his body tense from the strain of just holding himself up. His legs suddenly gave out on him and the collar tightened. Danny felt something in his shoulder pop as he fell awkwardly to one side trying to avoid putting further weight on his bad knee. Since his arms were still tied behind his back, the fall yanked them at an angle they should not be moved in and his left shoulder exploded in pain. He didn’t even have the oxygen to cry out in pain. His eyes were closed tightly and his mouth hung open in a silent scream. Danny struggled to right himself and managed once more to pull his body back to a semi standing position. He felt the collar loosen and greedily began gulping in air, coughing and wheezing in between heaving breaths. 

He couldn’t keep this up much longer. His strength was waning quickly. 

_Steve. Where the hell are you?_

* * *

Danny couldn’t stand it any longer. He’d completely lost track of how long he’d been stuck in this hell but he knew he couldn’t keep standing any longer. His eyes kept shutting on their own accord. His body was desperate for sleep and his legs were trembling so bad he was practically vibrating. His knee and his shoulder, which he was pretty confident he had dislocated in one of the many times he had fallen, howled in pain at every tiny movement. Danny’s throat was sore from the collar’s abuse, his head ached, he was nauseous, and he could feel blood drip down his fingers from the tight cuffs around his wrists. 

In summary, Danny was miserable and defeated. He squeezed his eyes shut as he felt his left leg give a little. He needed to shift his weight or it would give out on him but his other knee just couldn’t hold up his weight. It was a lose lose situation. He was going down and this time Danny didn’t think he’d have the strength to pick himself back up.

As soon as he had the thought, his legs crumbled once more and the collar tightened around his neck as he crashed towards the floor. He choked against the rope holding him up and jerked around like a fish out of water, gasping and sputtering. He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t breathe, _he couldn’t breathe!_ His lungs were on fire, desperate for air but he couldn’t get any in. His feet scrambled across the floor trying to find purchase but he couldn’t do it. They weren’t strong enough.

Blackness edged his vision and he felt himself slipping away. Oh god this was it. He was dying. He was gonna die her. _I’m sorry Grace. I’m so sorry. Danno loves you. I’m so sorry._

“Danny!”

A distant voice broke through the darkness that was threatening to take hold of him.

“Danny! I got you! Hold on!” 

The voice was closer now and suddenly his body was moving, lifted into the air by some unknown force. He was no longer hanging from the rope. Instead, the tension on the collar loosened and air flooded into his lungs. He gasped and jerked in surprise at the unexpected rush of air and started sucking in lungfuls greedily. The world rushed back to him and he coughed and wheezed as his abused throat tried to take in the precious oxygen.

“I got you Danny, I got you. Just stay with me. Breathe, Danno.” 

Steve. 

Steve was here. 

“Chin get that rope off of him! Kono do something about those handcuffs!”

As Danny gulped in lungfuls of air his head began to clear. He could feel Steve’s arms wrapped tightly around him in a crushing and desperate hug. Steve was holding up Danny’s bodyweight for him, pulling him close and holding on tight. Danny’s face was close enough to Steve’s that he could feel his breath against his cheek. 

Soon the rope and collar were removed from his neck and Danny nearly cried in relief. He let his head fall onto Steve’s shoulder and just focused on the warmth of his partner surrounding him. Shortly afterwards his wrists were freed from the handcuffs, the metal pieces falling to the ground with a clank. He grunted in pain as his arms fell to his sides and his body fell limp like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Steve was there though. His strong arms keeping Danny’s aching, limp body from falling to the ground in a heap. Steve pulled him close and gently lowered them both to the ground. Steve never let go of his hold around him, not once, which was good because Danny didn’t have the strength to move. He let Steve manhandle him until he was laying in Steve’s lap, head cradled underneath his chin and his arms carefully folded in this lap. Danny closed his eyes and focused on trying to breath normally. He was wheezing and coughing still but he could breathe again. He could breathe and Steve was here. He was safe now. It was over.

“That’s it buddy, just breathe. The ambulance will be here soon.”

Danny pried his eyes open and looked up at his partners faced. Steve was gazing down at him and Danny could see the worry on his face; the furrow in his brow, the tightness around his mouth. He looked haggard. Danny wondered how long he’d been gone for. 

“What…took you…so long,” Danny said hoarsely.

Steve smiled and chuckled, “You’re a hard man to find Detective Williams.”

“D’you...find the guy?”

Steve’s face fell and he shook his head. “Not yet but we will. Don’t worry Danny he won’t get away. We’ll find him.”

“Who-” Danny coughed and grimaced at the pain it caused him. “Who was he?”

Steve looked away briefly, his face grimacing and anger sharpening his eyes. He ran his hand slowly up and down Danny’s arm before pulling him tighter against his chest protectively. After a breath he looked at Danny, his eyes softening, “Don’t worry about that right now. Just focus on breathing.”

“Hmm. Working on it.” Danny let his eyes close, exhaustion enveloping him. 

“Hey, hey, stay awake Danno. Stay with me.” Steve gently shook him but the movement jostled his bad shoulder and knee and caused Danny to groan in pain.

“Shit, sorry. I’m sorry buddy but you need to stay awake, okay?”

“Hmm. Hurts. Tired, Steve.”

“I know buddy, I know. But it looks like you have a pretty bad head wound. I need you to stay with me until the paramedics can take a look at you.”

“Ambulance is two minutes out,” Chin said to Steve as he knelt down placing a comforting hand on Danny’s shoulder. “Hang in there Danny. You’re gonna be okay.”

“You hear that Danno? Two minutes. Just two more minutes okay? Keep those eyes open for me.”

“Hnngh two minutes. Two..”

“That’s right. Two minutes.”

Danny mumbled something incoherently, his eyes falling closed again. This time he didn’t have the energy to open them again. He knew Steve was right. He should try to stay awake but dammit he’d been awake for the last god knows how many hours. He just wanted to sleep. He was tired, so tired and everything hurt. He just wanted to sleep.

“Come on Danny stay awake.” Danny could feel Steve gently slapping his cheek but he couldn’t comply. His body was too tired. His mind was too tired. He let the exhaustion take him and fell headfirst into the blissful oblivion, confident that Steve would take care of everything.

* * *

Danny woke up feeling cool and comfortable, his body laying on top of something soft. A quiet beeping echoed in the background of his mind and he followed the sound back into awareness. 

Opening his eyes, Danny felt like he was floating. His head was foggy and he looked around the room in confusion. 

He stared at the white ceiling tile above his head before taking a closer look around. The first thing he noticed was that everything was white and there was a scent of bleach wafting through the cool air that was blowing into his nose. _Nasula cannula_, his foggy brain recognized. He was definitely in a hospital. His saw that his right knee was bandaged and propped up on a pillow while his left arm was in a sling. There were bandages around both of his wrists and he could feel the pull of stitches on his head. He reached up to touch it and winced as the pain it caused him. 

A soft snore drew his attention to his right where he found Steve sound asleep in the chair next to his bed, his hand propping up his head up as he snored softly, his mouth hanging open slightly. Danny smiled and weakly reached over to tap him on the arm. 

It was only a light touch but Steve jerked awake at the contact and he nearly fell out of the chair in surprise. Danny chuckled, pulling his arm back to his side. Steve relaxed once he realized where he was and his gaze fell to Danny. Seeing Danny awake he smiled that big dopey grin of his and leaned forward.

“Danno! You’re awake!”

“Hey, he said hoarsely. Speaking hurt. Much more than he expected it to and he grimaced. His voice sounded like he’d eaten nothing but gravel for the last week and his throat felt like it.

“Here have a drink.” Steve brought a cup with a straw near his mouth and Danny gratefully sucked in several mouthfuls of water. The cool water soothed his throat and Danny realized how desperately thirsty he was. He tried to chug the rest of the water but Steve took it away sooner than he’d like. “Easy Danno, not too fast.”

Danny cleared his throat and tried to talk again, “Wha’ happened?”

Steve placed the cup back on the table and looked at him hesitantly, “What’s the last thing you remember?”

The memory of that place came flooding back. The darkness; the hot, stale air; the fear when the rope was pulled taught cutting off his oxygen. His heart rate picked up and his breathing increased. The machines around his bed started beeping incessantly and he felt Steve grab his shoulders.

“Easy, Danno, easy. It’s okay. You’re safe now. Just breathe buddy.”

Danny quickly reached up to touch his neck, to check that the collar was gone and he wasn’t just imagining this comfortable place. Instead of feeling the leather he felt the soft touch of gauze and he relaxed. Danny leaned his head back against the pillow and sighed, closing his eyes in relief. After a moment of enjoying the softness of the hospital bed and the relief he felt at just being able to lay down, he opened his eyes again and turned his head to the right.

Steve looked at him, worried.

"Grace?" Danny asked.

Steve relaxed slightly. "She's fine. Worried about her Danno. I called Rachel and let her know what happened. She'll bring Grace by when you're feeling up to it."

“How bad is it?”

“You’ve got a mild concussion and you were pretty dehydrated when we found you. The cuts on your wrists got infected so you’re getting iv antibiotics for that. Plus you dislocated your shoulder and your knee is pretty banged up but the doctor says you’re gonna be just fine. He fixed up your knee with a little surgery and there’s no serious damage anywhere. You’ll make a full recovery.”

“How...how long was I gone?” 

“A little over 36 hours. You’ve been in the hospital for two days now. God, I was worried sick about you Danny, why didn’t you wait for me before you went to meet this guy? You always harp on me about waiting for backup and then to go and do something like this? You should have waited.”

"Hey first of all, I'm not the one who runs into gunfights without waiting for backup. This was supposed to be a simple meet. Big difference. Second of all, I tried. You didn't answer the phone. I thought the Intel was good and could lead somewhere and the guy wasn't going to wait for your meeting to end. Third, I'm a trained detective who has worked without backup before. I can handle myself just fine. It's not my fault the whole thing was a set up you neanderthal---" Danny cut off as a round of coughing ripped through him telling him he'd talked to much. 

"Shit. Hey, easy, easy Danno. Don't talk so much right now. Rant at me when your better okay. Breathe." Steve rubbed Danny's back trying to help.

When stopped coughing he turned his glare back to Steve, "Promise?"

"Yeah. Promise." Steve's smile fell and he looked away, releasing his hand from Danny's shoulder. "I'm sorry Danny. I'm just.... This was all my fault. I'm so sorry."

"What are you talking about? You found me in time. It's all good Super SEAL. I'm fine. Little banged up but I'm fine."

"No, Danny. Look uh the guy who took you? His name is Victor Perez. He's a drug smuggler working out of Costa Rica. I killed his brother back in '07. He took you to get back at me. You almost died because of me."

"Hey, hey stop that right now. The only person at fault is the sick bastard who knocked me over the head and strung me up. This is not your fault. You understand? Not. Your. Fault. So knock off the pitiful guilty face, babe, cause I'm not having it."

"I'm still sorry. You almost died and I….it shouldn't have happened. 36 hours Danny. 36 hours where I didn't know if you were even still alive. He said I'd never be able to find you and for a second I thought he would be right. And it would have been my fault. I'm so so sorry Danny."

"But I didn't die. Cause you and Chin and Kono, you guys found me. Knew you would."

Steve still looks sick but doesn't say anything. Danny reaches over and grabs his hand. "Steve. It's okay. I'm okay. We're good. Yeah?"

"Yeah. Yeah, we're good. Just please don't go anywhere without backup again okay?"

"Says the pot to the kettle."

"I'm serious Danny."

"Fine. I promise. No more one man meet and greets." Danny shifted slightly in bed trying to find a more comfortable position but all he achieved was several sharp spikes of pain coming from various parts of his body. He groaned, freezing until the pain settled. Steve hovered anxiously nearby. Ignoring the pain, Danny decided to refocus Steve's attention. "So. Did you find him?" he asked through clenched teeth.

Steve sat down again and took hold of Danny's hand, slowly rubbing his thumb across his knuckles in an attempt to soothe his pain away. "Yeah we did. Chin and Kono are booking him right now. He's gonna rot in prison for the rest of his life."

Warmth flowed through his body and Danny sighed. "Hmm. 's good." He was starting to feel sleepy, the pain fading from his body. _Steve must have pressed the morphine button_, the thought absentmindedly.

"Go to sleep Danny. It's okay. I'll be right here when you wake up again."

"Thanks, babe," Danny said as his eyes slipped closed and he faded back into blissful sleep.


End file.
